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American tytojjpess:. 



A LECTURE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S MERCANTILE LIBRARY 



ASSOCIATION OF CINCINNATI, 



: 



DECEMBER 8, 1846. 



By GAMALIEL BAILEY, Jr 



CINCINNATI : 

$rfntfB ata DublfsijcU &B 
EDWIN SHEPARP, No. 11 COLUMBIA STREET. 

1846. 







AMERICAN PROGRESS: 



A LECTURE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S MERCANTILE LIBRARY 



ASSOCIATION OP CINCINNATI, 



DECEMBER 8, 1846. 




By GAMALIEL BAILEY, Jr 






* 



•» CINCINNATI: 

^rtntcB an* 3Put)If.i!)e» ho 
EDWIN SHEPARP, No. 11 COLUMBIA STREET. 



1846. 



£\-\ 



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Cincinnati, Dec. 11, 1846. 

Gamaliel Bailey, Jr. — Dear Sir: — The pleasure which the perusal 
of your Address on American Progress would afford, induces us to 
request its publication. Those of us who heard it, desire to preserve 
the valuable information it contained, while others of us who were 
prevented by the inclemency of the evening from being present, are 
anxious to see that which is everywhere so highly spoken of. 
Very respectfully, your friends, 



W. GREENE, 

S. S. L'HOMMEDIEU, 

C. D. COFFIN, 

W. D. GALLAGHER, 

R. BUCHANAN, 

J. M. McCULLOUGH, 

ROLAND G. MITCHELL, 

C. DONALDSON, 

S. P. CHASE, 

S. I. KELLOGG, 

JOSEPH LONGWORTH, 

JAMES PULLAN, 

JAMES W. TAYLOR, 

B. STORER. 



ROWLAND ELLIS, 
JAMES JOHNSTON, 
JOHN W. HARTWELL, 
ROBERT CRAWFORD, 
GEO. CRAWFORD, 
E. D. MANSFIELD, 
R. CAMERON, 
J. R. CORAM, 
THOS. H. MINOR, 
THOS. SHERLOCK, 
W. STEPHENSON, 
W. F, JOHNSON, 
ROBERT BOAL, 



Cincinnati, Dec. 15, 1846. 

Messrs. Greene, L'Hommedieu, Coffin, and others : — 

Gentlemen: — The Lecture to which you so kindly refer, 
is at your disposal. Nothing but an indisposition to say no to friends 
whom I value too much, needlessly to disoblige, could have induced 
my consent to its publication. 

Respectfully, 

G. BAILEY, Jh, 



AMERICAN PROGRESS. 



f_ The following Lecture was prepared while its Author was an invalid, delivered 
just en the eve of his removal from Cincinnati, and printed after his departure. 
The statistical character of a large portion of it, rendered careful revision greatly- 
desirable ; but this, owing to the circumstances above named, was impossible. 
Nevertheless, the statements made, in the Lecture, it is believed, will be found to 
be correct, in all material points.] — The Author. 

It is the tendency of the Reformers of a Country — the 
pioneers of its progressive movements — so to concentrate their 
attention on its evil characteristics, as to overlook in it what 
is valuable. Contemplating the good they would obtain for 
it, and mortified at the distance it falls short, they too often 
yield to the illusion that it is receding, instead of advancing; 
and in this way, the grandest of all sentiments, — a profound 
devotion to absolute Truth, — is perverted to the injury of 
another feeling, far less exalted, it is true, but still noble in its 
nature, and the source of many illustrious deeds — the Love of 
Cotmtnj. 

What does a benevolent Philosophy teach? Cast your eye 
back over the records of the past : mark the slow, laborious, 
almost imperceptible progress of Humanity — its ever-changing 
prospects — its sudden recessions — its inexplicable advances — 
how, after an apparent relapse into Barbarism, it would 
emerge under a loftier form, upon higher ground, sweeping the 
horizon with a more comprehensive gaze, and treading with a 
firmer step. Your own country, on a smaller scale, but exem- 



[ 6 ] 

plifies the history of the race. Good and evil have been mixed: 
progress and apostasy have been striving for the mastery : at 
times the struggle has seemed doubtful ; but in the end, Truth 
has triumphed, though by the hardest, and there has been 
advancement. 

Having by such views quickened your Patriotism and revived 
your hopes, then erect the standard of Absolute Right, and the 
glaring defects of your country, when thus tested, will restrain 
pride, take down the extravagance of hope, and provoke to 
untiring effort for its reform. 

Despair, like the Dead Sea, can sustain no living thing in 
its depths. Bereave a man of hope, make him believe that he 
is utterly worthless, and you have taken one way to accomplish 
his ruin. He who has a Future may reform : he who has both 
a Past and Future may hope for perfection. How the soul 
must be energized that can look back upon a pathway adorned 
by the evidences of its good deeds ! While it humbles itself in 
the presence of the Infinite Good, such retrospection awakens 
self-respect, begets elevation of sentiment, reduces the power 
of evil motive, and stimulates to nobler activity. 

There is another feeling, analogous to this, but which is con- 
tinually liable to perversion — a regard for ancestry. The 
apostate from all goodness, who seeks to hide his moral deform- 
ity in the blaze of ancestral glory, is a fool : his own evil 
deeds are only deepened in their shadows by the light emanating 
from the lives of his forefathers. But he, whose acts have 
rendered him a blessing to his country or mankind, has a pro- 
perty-right in the accumulated reputation of an illustrious 
ancestry ; and must derive a greatness of thought and dignity 
of spirit from his honorable associations with the Past. 

What is true of an Individual in these cases, is true of a 
Nation. A nation must think well of ilself, before it can perform 
any thing respectable. Undermine its self-respect, debase it in 
its own estimation, and you remove one of the strongest restraints 
on evil conduct, one of the most powerful incentives to an 
honorable career. Persuade a whole people that they are mean, 
dishonest, insignificant, and they will be very apt to become so, 
if they are not. Let them believe themselves too honorable 



[ r ] 

■ 

to do a base action, and that very belief will prove a conserv- 
ative influence. The bitter denunciations directed by a portion 
of the Press against the repudiating States of this Union, 
denunciations unsoftened by a single expression of confidence 
in their reviving virtue, or hope of the prospective discharge 
of their obligations, have done infinitely more harm than good. 
You cannot elevate men by trampling them under foot. 

Again : let a nation be able to appeal to a Past of many 
centuries, marked by deeds of heroism, or acts of inestimable 
value to the cause of Liberty and Justice, amid the \ scenes 
of which move numerous actors, eminent for their integrity, 
their intellectual grandeur, their self-sacrificing devotion to 
their countrymen or their race, and it can hardly fail to 
become great-minded. It will feel that it has a glorious 
name to sustain. All the goodness and greatness which 
have signalized its Past, are the heritage of its Present. 
The reputation won by its great men in all ages becomes 
in a certain sense the property of every citizen, however 
humble ; and, though not a Hampden or Wilberforce him- 
self, he cannot forget that he is their countryman. Thus 
the prophets of a nation may depart, but their mantles fall 
upon the People. 

Often have we been struck at the lofty style in which 
English writers talk of their country. Take an example from 
a late number of the Foreign Quarterly Review : 

" The heart of England is large enough for every thing. It is our 
duty to diffuse knowledge over the whole world. It would indeed 
seem to be that it was for this purpose we were raised up. Our in- 
dustry, our trade, our political greatness, our struggles, victories and 
conquests, advantageous to us in a secular point of view, may be still 
more advantageous to others. We are but the carriers of the seeds of 
civilization, we bear forth the sword to protect our commerce, and our 
commerce itself is designed, perhaps, only as a raft to float the germs 
of polished and civilized life to the remotest and most obscure corners 
of the earth." 

This man writes under the inspiration of the Past. He 
rt nembers what England has done, and his Imagination 



y 



[ 8 ] 

dilates with glorious visions of what she is yet destined to 
accomplish. 

Americans too can point to a Past, though a brief one. 
Whatever deeds of note they have done, whatever reputation 
won, are of recent date. There arc hoary-headed men 
among us who were present at the birth of this nation. No 
wonder that we have more national Vanity than Pride. As a 
People, we are sensitive to comment, because not exactly certain 
of our standing. Half a century, we fear, is not long enough 
for us to have formed a character as fixed, to have won a 
renown as world-wide, to have established a position as un- 
questionable, as belong to the older and leading nations of 
Europe. 

True, by the tie of relationship, we have some share in the 
fame of the Anglo-Saxon race, but it is a small one. We 
have only a remote claim to participate in any credit belonging 
to the achievements of that race in England. To all intents 
and purposes, we are a new, distinct people — a compound of 
different races — and we live in a new country, under peculiar 
institutions. 

What has boon the result of this mixture of races? Is this 
Western hemisphere as favorable to the development of 
man, as the Eastern? What has been the operation of Dem- 
ocratic Institutions upon the Progress of this nation.' 

These are questions of profound interest ; but our history, 
though a short one, will aid us in their solution. This history 
records a progress such as the world has scarcely witnessed — 
a progress which I shall rapidly survey under the following 
heads : — 

TERRITORIAL EXTENSION - , POPULATION, COMMERCE, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, 
TOST OFFICE ACCOMMODATION, EDUCATION, RELIGION. 

1. Territorial Extension. — The Revolutionary Patriots, 
far-seeing as they were, had no adequate idea of the future 
greatness of the empire, whose foundations they were laying. 
The Treaty by which Britain recognized our independence, 
circumscribed us within narrow bounds. While the Great 
Lakes defined our limils at the North, the Mississippi shut us 



[ 9 3 

in on the West, and at the South, the boundary was the 31st 
parallel, north latitude. The free navigation of the great river 
of the West was also secured to us, so far as England could 
do it ; but Spain, then occupying a lofty position in the Old 
World, was the owner of the Floridas, and of both shores 
of the Mississippi, below the 31st degree of latitude, so that 
our commerce in that direction was completely at her mercy. 
This was not all. That haughty and selfish Power would not 
acknowledge the Treaty which secured the Mississippi as our 
western boundary, but was anxious to hem in our territory 
by the Alleghanies. For fifteen years a constitutional struggle 
was kept up between that country and the United States, the 
utmost demanded by the latter, being, the recognition of the 
Mississippi as our Western limit, the concession of the free 
navigation of that river to the Gulf, and a free port of deposit 
for the merchandize and products of the West. At last, the 
American Government succeeded in gaining every one of these 
points, but not until the belligerent demonstrations of the hardy 
settlers of the West had alarmed Spain for the safety of her 
possessions, and that too at the very moment, when by a 
decisive blow from Revolutionary France, she was torn from 
the alliance of England, and compelled to feel that her great- 
ness had departed. 

The State papers on this important question were exceed- 
ingly able. Although the statesmen of those days seemed to 
think our empire forever bounded by the Mississippi, and to 
regard with indifference the possession of the shores of the 
Gulf of Mexico by a Foreign Power, they had clear views of 
the capabilities of the West. In a letter of instructions sent by 
Congress to Mr. Jay, in the year 1780, occurs the following 
remarkable passage : 

" In a very few years, after peace shall have taken place, this coun- 
try will certainly be overspread with inhabitants. In like manner, as 
in all new settlements, agriculture, not manufactures, will be their em- 
ployment. They will raise wheat, corn, beef, pork, tobacco, hemp, flax, 
and, in the Southern parts, perhaps rice and indigo, in great quanti- 
ties." 

2 



[ w ] 

'■ Recollect — this was written sixty-six years ago, almost be- 
fore a settlement had been made beyond the Alleghanies; and 
yet these clear-sighted men predicted the growth of nearly 
every one of the staples by which this region is now charac- 
terized ! 

But, there is a limit to human sagacity. In the year 1790, 
a long letter of instructions was forwarded to Mr. Carmichacl, 
our Minister at the Court of Spain, in which numerous argu- 
ments were briefly sketched, to be used in the negotiation 
concerning the free navigation of the Mississippi. Among oth- 
ers, a guaranty was offered to Spain of her possessions beyond 
the Mississippi ; and the following points were insisted upon: — 

"Safer for Spain that we should be her neighbor than Eng- 
land — 

"Conquest not in our principles — inconsistent with our Govern- 
ment- — 

"Not our interest to cross the Mississippi for ages: — 

" And will never be our interest to remain connected with those 
who do !" 

' And to show the stress laid upon the clause — " not our in- 
terest to cross the Mississippi for ages" — it was placed 
conspicuously in italic 

In half an age from the date of this remarkable declar- 
ation, what do we sec ? Four now and powerful Slates 
"across" the Mississippi, with a population of a million of 
souls; and at this very hour, the dust is rolling up from the 
track beaten by the American emigrants as they sweep 
through the passes of the Rocky Mountains to take » 
sion of the shores of the Pacific? 

To complete this part of the subject, a few words arc 
necessary in relation to (lie ac n of Louisiana. We 

are apt to laud the wisdom of the Administration under 
which the purchase of Louisiana • I; but it may 

not bo known to all in this audience that that immense 
country was in reality forced upon us. About the year 
1800, it is supposed, France concluded with Spain the se- 
cret treaty, by which she secured the ownership of Louisi- 



[ ii J 

ana. It was not made known, however, till after the rati- 
fication of the peace, or rather truce, of Amiens. The Govern- 
ment of the United States became justly alarmed. From the 
debility and inertness of Spain, nothing was to be apprehend- 
ed; but the ambition of Napoleon, then at peace with the 
world, and left free to meditate the building up of an im- 
mense empire in the interior of this continent, which in any 
future struggle with Great Britain, would secure him the 
ascendancy, awakened the profoundest anxiety in the Amer- 
ican Government. The perpetual occlusion of the commerce 
of the Western settlers, by French monopoly of the Mis- 
sissippi river, was clearly foreseen. It was understood that 
this territory had cost France 100,000,000 francs, and it was 
not to be supposed, that such an outlay had been made for 
nothing. Accordingly, our Ministers in Paris were instructed 
to procure, if possible, a cession of New Orleans and the 
Floridas, and the establishment of the Mississippi as the 
boundary between this country and Louisiana. Remember — 
this was so late as the year 1803, and under the Adminis- 
tration of Mr. Jefferson, whose views of policy were certainly 
as comprehensive as those of any statesman of his day. No 
one seemed to understand the vital importance of securing 
the entire Valley of the Mississippi, and ridding the Nation 
of any European Power on its Western borders. 

The instructions of Mr. Jefferson were, to purchase a small 
portion of Louisiana ; and for this he was willing to concede 
to France the most extravagant privileges; even a perpetual 
guaranty of her territories beyond the Mississippi river. 

But Providence controls the affairs, and shapes the destinies 
of nations. The peace of Amiens was abruptly terminated. 
Napoleon found England again upon his hands. His mag- 
nificent projects in the New World at once fell to the ground. 
Britain threatened Louisiana, and his Treasury was empty. 
What to do ? was the question. If he could dispose of 
Louisiana to the United States, he would secure neutrality 
in that quarter, disappoint Great Britain, and replenish his 
Treasury. 

When, therefore, the American Ministers proposed to pur- 



I 12 | 

chase a part of Louisiana, they were asked what they would 
give for the whole, — and at last the ultimatum of Napoleon 
was announced — he would sell all or none. From the 
necessity of the case, then, they concluded to transcend their 
instructions, assume the responsibility, and form a treaty for 
the purchase of the whole of Louisiana. Thus, by a remark- 
able conjunction of circumstances, against the policy of our 
Government, the whole of the vast Valley of the Mississippi 
became ours, and our Western boundary was carried to the 
Pacific ocean. 

Now, we have an ample basis for an empire. With a 
territory bounded on the North by a chain of inland seas, on 
the South, by the Gulf of Mexico; washed on the East by 
the Atlantic ocean, on the West, by the Pacific; with a 
soil of unsurpassed fertility, ranging through every variety of 
climate; with navigable rivers, penetrating every part of the 
interior; commanding on one side the trade of Europe and 
Africa, on the other, the commerce of Asia and the Islands 
of the Sea; with no power on our borders that can throw 
an obstacle in the way of our progress, — our posiiion is 
such as no other Nation has ever occupied. 

But, by no wisdom of man, by no device of statesman- 
ship, has our territory been carried to its present cxl 
All human agencies have, clearly, been subordinate, while 
empire has been given us by an overruling Providence. 
From this remark, I beg leave to except the recent annexa- 
tion of foreign territory to this Union. 

2. Population. — I proceed next to notice our progress in 
respect to population. Population is power. Howsoever the 
truth of this maxim may be affected by peculiar circum- 
stances, in this country it is true without qualification; and it 
must be true in all countries, where the wants of the peo- 
ple have not transcended the productive power. It is one 
of the great sources of wealth, the real element of Domin- 
ion, and its rapid increase is, in most cases, the clearest 
evidence of high prosperity. There are, indeed, eccentric 
theorists among us who, in their blind devotion to the nar- 



I 13 J 

row politics of the South Carolina School, deny these self- 
evident truths; but it is enough to know that they also repu- 
diate the great doctrines which constitute the ground-work 
of all Democratic institutions. 

In the year 1755, the population of the colonics, which 
subsequently declared their independence, was 980,000. In 
1840, eighty-five years from that ti:ne, it had risen to seven- 
teen millions, and by the year 1855, a century from that 
date, it will have advanced beyond twenty-five millions ! 
The average increase of the people of Great Britain every 
ten years, is, 15 per cent — of die people of the United States 
32 or 33 per cent. In 1801, the population of the former 
country was 10*942,046, in 1841, 18,056,090; in 1851, it will 
be 2 1,885,0 30 :^so that in half a century, it will not quite have 
doubled itself. But in the United States we more than doable 
our numbers every quarter of a century; so that while, in half 
a century, Great Britain has been augmenting her population 
not quite two-fold, we have increased ours more than lour- 
fold ! This ratio of increase will continue for at least the next 
fifty years, so that at the close of the nineteenth century, the 
population of this country will have reached seventy-five millions ! 
Ere that time Oregon will have been peopled, steamers will 
be plying regularly between Columbia and Whampoa, and wo 
shall be in the receipt of the latest Pekin fashions, six da^s 
after their first appearance at Astoria. 

3. Commerce. — Travellers from abroad pre in the habit of 
representing Americans as a grave, ultilitarian people, with 
little of the graceful or romantic in their composition; and 
they charge this as a serious defect of character, without once 
adverting to the peculiar circumstances in which they are 
placed. The settlers of this country were obliged to become 
men of iron; and their first attention necessarily was directed 
to the material development and improvement of their new 
inheritance. They had to watch against famine, endure priva- 
tion, struggle with the savage, hew their way through forests, 
level mountains, erect highways through swamps and over 
ravines; to build homes in an unknown wilderness, supply 
them with the necessaries of life, and then defend them 



I 11 J 

against treachery. Tim rich and varied soil, giving birth to a 
superabundance of every variety of products, the vast extent 
of sea-coast abounding in commodious harbors, and penetrated 
in all directions by navigable rivers, stretching far into the 
interior, naturally made them and their descendants a com- 
mercial people; while the extraordinary energy infused into 
the masses by freedom from oppressive monopolies, their 
political and practical equality of rights, and their equal 
chances of obtaining wealth and distinction, gave to their 
commercial enterprise a character of daring, of heroism, 
hitherto unknown. 

In the year 1771, the total amount of tonnage owned by 
the Colonies, was but 100,01)0; and the value of their ex- 
ports, about seven hundred thousand dollars. In 17N0. the 
tonnage had grown to 201,652. That of Great Britain and 
Ireland, in the year 1800, was 1,855,879, nine times greater. 
But after a race of forty-five years, how stands the account? 
The American Union has become the second maritime power 
in the world, possessing a tonnage of 2,416,399, twelve times 
more than it owned half a century ago; while Great Britain, 
in forty-five years, has increased hers to but 3,01 1,392, only 
two-fifths. That is, the tonnage of this country in fifty-five 
years has grown at the rate of 1098 per cent., that of Britain, 
in forty-live years, at the rate of only 61 per cent ! 

But, it is in the Internal Commerce of the States, that 
Progress has been most striking. In the beginning of this 
century, an immense solitude lay stretched out between the 
Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains — the home of the wan- 
dering savage and buffalo. Through it rolled the Mississippi, 
Father of Waters, constituting, with his tributaries, an extent 
of navigation equal to twelve thousand miles; draining one 
million three hundred thousand square miles, or one twenty- 
eighth part of the surface of the earth. And it seemed des- 
tined to roll on in eternal silence. The stealthy canoe might 
be seen, darting across its dark bosom, or an occasional 
keel-boat laboring along amid " tangled undergrowth and 
miry swamp ;" but no sounds of busy commerce echoed 
along its shores. Away to the North, slumbered the great 



[ 15 ] 

Lakes, unexplored, skirting our shores for two thousand miles, 
with a coast of five thousand miles in extent; embosomed 
in a country of boundless productiveness, and capable of a 
commerce of incalculable value. Not a sail whitened their 
bosom, no steamboat vexed their quiet, but the pirogue of 
the French fur-trader was the chief carrier of their petty 
traffic. 

It is stated that in 1794, four keel-boats, each of twenty 
tons, and occupying one month in going and returning, per- 
formed all the carrying trade between Cincinnati and Pitts- 
burgh. Traveling in those times was not quite so tame a 
business as it is now. In advertising these boats, the Cen- 
tinel of the North West Territory, of January 4th, 1791, 
remarks — "No danger need be apprehended from the enemy, 
as every person on board will be under cover, made proof 
against rifle or musket balls, with convenient port holes for 
firing out of!" 

In 1802, the first Government vessel appeared on Lake 
Erie. In 1811, the first steamboat was launched at Pitts- 
burgh. In 1818, the first steamboat was built on Lake Erie. 
And now what do we see ? The solitary places made glad. 
The fires of civilization burning in every valley, upon every 
hill top, along every shore. The treasures of a continent 
unlocked. A world of life, where there was a wilderness. 
Steamboats descending from the Falls of St. Anthony, two 
thousand miles to the Gulf of Mexico; steamboats ascending 
to the Great Falls of the Missouri, four thousand miles from 
the Gulf; steamboats thronging the Ohio and its tributaries, 
an extent of 5,000 miles of navigable waters; palaces of 
steamboats darkening the Great Lakes, jit is computed on 
good authority that at this time there are 750 steamboats on 
the western rivers, a number nearly equal to all the steam- 
boats of Great Britain a few years since; and the commerce 
of these rivers and lakes cannot be less in annual value 
than three hundred millions of dollars. 

4. Internal Improvements. — But in no way has Ameri- 
can energy manifested itself more wonderfully, than in works 
of Internal Improvement. These are on a gigantic scale, in 



I 16 I 

perfect keeping with the physical features of the country. It 
would serm as if man had been laboring 10 rival the gran- 
deur of Nature. ( Will the audience pardon my frequent 
reference to statistics: I cannot do justice to this subject by 
dialing in mere figures of speech.) 

In the year 1^39, the total length of canals constructed 
in England was 2400 miles. I have not been able to find 
any record of later date; but, it may be presumed, from the 
railroad mania which has overspread that country, that there 
lias been comparatively little canal extension since then. But, 
on summing up an authentic table of the canals in the Uni- 
ted Elates in 1845, I find that their total length is 4006 
miles, exceeding the length of the English canals by 1000 
miles ! 

As it respects railroads, the contrast is still greater. The 
Paris Constitutionnel, recently furnished various statistics con- 
cerning railways in Europe and the United Stales, at the 
close of the year 1815. The American Union ranks first in 
the extent of its railroads, England next, though far behind. 
And yet that paper is in error, in assigning to the United 
States sonic eight hundred miles of railway less than are 
now open for travel. Correciing the table in this particular, 
I present some of the results, using English, instead of 
French, measure. 

At the close ihen, of the year 1815, the total length of 
railroad was, in England, 2,008 miles, in all Europe, includ- 
ing England, 5,059 miles ; in the United States alone. 5,091 
miles, — a greater extent than in England and all Euro; e. 

This is progress ! Where arc we ? Improvements are 
sweeping by us with lightning-speed. In 1825, the first loco- 
motive in England traveled at the rate of 6 miles an hour. 
In 18 - J9, the speed of 15 miles per hour was reached ; in 
183J, 20 miles ; in 1839, 37 miles ; and at this moment there 
are locomotives running 42 miles per hour. Who shall set 
limits to their speed? We go now from Boston to New York 
in a few hours. It is a pleasant day's ride from New York 
to Washington. You leave Washington on the morning of 
one day, and in the evening of the next are at Pittsburgh. 



[ '- J 

A day or two's journey takes you from New York to Detroit. 
Let us see how our fathers gat along. Some editorial lover 
of olden times falls in with the Boston News Letter, dated 
September 15, 17(53, published at Boston by Richard Diaper, 
printer to the Governor and Council. The paper is a great 
curiosity. It mentions letters received at New York, September 
4th, dated Detroit, August 8th — nearly one month on the way 
— and they too were sent by express. Speculations in flour in 
those days were not very profitable. The latest dates men- 
tioned — (recollect the paper is published in Boston, and dated 
September 15th,) — are from Newport, R. I., September 10th; 
Philadelphia, September 1st; Fort Pitt, (now Pittsburgh,) Au- 
gust 12th — one month and three days from Pittsburgh to 
Boston ! Who after this will laugh incredulously at the idea 
of a railroad to the Oregon, and a journey from New York 
to the Pacific in half a dozen days? In the Past is the promise 
of the Future? The opposite shores of this continent will be 
bound together by bands of iron, and the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans shall yet be one. 

What has hitherto been presented, illustrates our material 
progress. But, it may be said — all your energies have been 
concentrated in this direction to the neglect of higher, more 
commanding intcrests^R r ou have bestowed sufficient attention 
on the earthly home which the good God has given you — 
the tabernacle for your flesh — but how have you supplied the 
wants of the moral man? 

Certainly, had there been some neglect in this' respect, it could 
scarcely have been wondered at ; but let us again appeal to 
facts, to determine to what extent provision has been made 
for the claims of our higher nature. 

What I may now have to say, will be comprised under the 
three heads — Post Office Accommodation, Education, Religion. 

5. Post Office Accommodation. — Many are apt to think 
that the Post Office concerns chiefly the interests of the mer- 
cantile classes ; when, in fact, it is the greatest, most vital 
public convenience, provided by the Government. Did Human 
Government do nothing more than supply Post Office facilities 
to the People, (supposing they could be furnished in no other 

3 



[ 18 j 

way,) it would be wortli all the taxes we pay for its support. 
What were the power of the Press without the Post Office? 
What, the accumulated intelligence of your cities, without 
the mail carrier? The Post Office plays precisely the same 
part in the world of ideas, that roads, canals, seas and oceans, 
do in the world of trade. It furnishes highways for the 
free, universal transmission of Thoughts, Sentiments, Affections. 
Without it, no nation, at this age, could maintain its identity, 
advance its civilization, or even perpetuate its existence. Have 
Americans neglected this important interest? Let us see. 

The first post established in this country was in New York, 
in the year 1710. The first Congress, under the New Consti- 
tution, made provision for a Post Office Department, — and the 
following year, 1790, the number of Post Offices was 75, the 
number of miles of Post roads, 1875, the revenue, $38,000. 
Half a century from that time, that is, in 1810, the number 
of Post Offices had multiplied from 75 to 13,488, the number 
of miles of post roads from 1,875 to 155.731), and the rev- 
enue had increased from $38,000 to four million] and a half 
dollars! But it is impossible fully to appreciate even this 
wonderful fact, without some comparison. Again, we take 
Great Britain as a standard, ranking^s she does, at the head 
of the ' nations of the earth. True, 1™ ^bounds are narrower, 
and the same expenditure on Post Office routes is not 
needed in that kingdom, as in this country. But the com- 
parison will serve to show how well we have met the more 
pressing demands upon us. 

In 1815, the length of the mail routes in Great Britain 
and Ireland was 18,816 miles, and the total annual transpor- 
tation, 15,009,105; while in the United States, the length of the 
routes was 143,940 miles, and the total annual transportation, 
35,634,269. 

6. Education. — Nor have Americans neglected their edu- 
cational wants ; and in this matter they have shown their 
usual practical knowledge. Prussia treats its subjects as parts 
of a machine, hewing and fitting them merely that they may 
work well in the great wheel of state. Its system of education 
is. in itself, a Despotism, and it is designed to bulwark the 



t 19 ] 

Despotism of the Sovereign Power. It may make good sub- 
jects, but not true men. Great Britain, on the other hand, 
lias not yet been able to devise any system for educating her 
People. The claims of the establishment and the principles 
of the dissenting interest are always in fierce conflict, so that 
it 'seems almost impossible to agree upon any common plan 
of secular education. At this moment they are discussing 
with great earnestness questions which have been settled in 
these States long since, to the satisfaction of all sects and 
parties. In this country the Legislative power has interfered 
just far enough to shape Public Sentiment, and consolidate a 
system, which, for its successful operation, depends, not upon 
Force, but upon Public Sentiment; and in our Public Schools 
we have lost sight of all sectarian differences, and political 
animosities. We have carefully respected the rights of con- 
science — we have exercised toleration — we have separated 
things having no natural connection — governmental interfer- 
ence has been allowed to stimulate, but not substitute, in- 
dividual effort — and our maxim has been that it is infinitely 
more important that the many be well educated than that 
the few be highly educated.' 

What are some of the results? The proportion of the 
whole white population of this country at school in the year 
1840, was 1 in 7. 

(I blush on being reminded by this word, white, of the 
dark blot on our National Escutcheon — the one great Foe 
to American Progress. The whole mass of slaves, as the 
audience is aware, are excluded by the Anti-Democratic laws 
of a portion of this Union from the benefits of Education, 
so that they cannot be taken into the account in this com- 
parison.) 

But, I was stating that the proportion of the whole white 
population at school in 1810, was 1 in 7; or, if we confine 
our view to the free States alone, 1 in 5; or, if we limit 
it to New England and New York, 1 in 3 or 4; while the 
proportion in Scotland, famed for its education, is but one in 
ten; in England one in twelve; in Wales, one in twenty. 
Again, in 1840, of the adult white population in this coun- 



[ BO 1 

try unable to read or wrilo, the proportion was one in 
twenty-six; in the free Stales alone, one in forty-seven. 
But, how is it with England, whose tourists' arc so fond of rid- 
iculing the dead level of our Democratic intellect \ Accord- 
ing to the returns of the registrar-general, " one-half of the 
adult population of England and Wales is composed of per- 
sons unable to write their own names." I quote word for 
word from the Westminster Review, of September. 18 1G. 
Here is another passage from the same source: — " The returns 
state that out of 735,788 persons married during the years 
1839, 1810 and 1811, 303,836 signed the marriage register 
with a mark only !" 

It is not in the spirit of an inflated patriotism, or from 
the slightest disposition to disparage a foreign country, that 
these contrasts are drawn. I use them just as I would 
comparisons of free and slave States — for the sake of illus- 
trating a principle. I cannot do justice to my subject with- 
out pursuing such a course. 

7. Religion. — In relation to religion, it was my intention 
to enter into some details respecting its condition in this 
country, but I have not time. The statistics upon this sub- 
ject, compiled by Messrs. Reed and Matheson, two English 
clergymen who traveled throughout the United States some 
iwelve years ago, examining with critical eye its institutions 
and their workings, are all-conclusive. They demonstrate 
that, taking all States together, new and old, this country, in 
regard to the amount of its religious supplies, is far in advance 
of even Scotland, renowned as that country is for its religious 
habits — that in proportion to population, our ministers arc 
more numerous, church accommodations more abundant, and 
the number of communicants far greater. 

When captious tourists from abroad sneer -at Americans, 
because they are not a very literary, highly polished people, 
they inaj reply by pointing to these facts. Our lot has been 
cast in the wilderness; we are just emerging from the smoke 
of our clearings; the savage war-whoop has scarcely died 
in the distance. 11 we cannot_ enact the gentleman or the 



[ 21 ] 

savan, it is because we are builders — builders of an em- 
pire — striving to lay deep, and broad, and strong, the foun- 
dations of an Indestructible Civilization in a New World 

I have thus rapidly glanced at the principal features of Amer- 
ican Progress, the presentation of Facts having been the main 
business of this address. Were there time, it would be profit- 
able to inquire into their philosophy: as it is, I cannot for- 
bear a few words of comment. Always acknowledging the 
efficiency of an Overruling Providence, I remark, that the 
unexampled progress we have been contemplating, is the re- 
sult of three facts or causes — the remarkable physical 
capacities of the Country, extraordinary energy in the People, 
and a peculiarly favorable system of Government. Dismiss- 
ing further notice of the other causes, it may be said in 
relation to the third, that the great principle which lies at 
the foundation of our Government, is a chief element of our 
Prosperity — I mean, the equality of all men in Natural 
rights. Just so far as this Principle has been carried out, 
it has unfettered the Land, unbound its Cultivator, given to 
Labor its just reward, secured the Laborer against encroach- 
ment, diffused a sense of Justice, established a feeling of 
security, awakened self-respect in the masses, unchained their 
energies, fired their hopes, developed all their enterprise. 
The rapidity with which this country has swept ahead of all 
others, in the respects I have indicated, is a triumphant 
demonstration of the Truth of the Democratic Principle, and 
the Falsehood of every system or institution which repudi- 
ates it. 

One brief glance now at the Future, and I shall have done. 

At the end of this century, the Pacific shores of this North 
American continent will be the seat of a Civilization like 
that which now bears sway on the Atlantic coast. Rivers 
of the Oregon, the Bay of St. Francisco, the Colorado, the 
Gulf of California, will float a commerce as grand as that 
which now darkens the great inland seas on our North, and 
the rivers of the Mississippi valley. The buffalo will have 
disappeared; a few Indians may linger in the passes of the 
mountains; but the intervening prairies will swarm with the 



I 22 ] 

Anglo-American tribes, and be dotted all over with tbe beau- 
tiful homos of civilization. Railroads and highways of all 
sorts will have bound the Atlantic and Pacific shores together 
with bands not to be broken ; and a trip from Boston to 
Astoria will be no more thought of than was a journey from 
Boston to Cincinnati forty or fifty years ago. The Pacific 
ocean will groan under the commerce which shall then spread 
its sails between the Old and New Worlds ; and the Islands 
of the sea will rejoice in the light of a Christian civilization. 

Now, we may suppose this new world, thus peopled, to be 
existing under one Government; cemented together by iden- 
tical institutions, language, customs; by the recollections of a 
common origin, a common history, sufferings and triumphs in 
common; by common interests and a reciprocal free commerce: 
or we may suppose it divided into two independent empires, 
Eastern and Western. 

Should the former be the case, no military establishment 
would be required larger than the United States have now: 
there would be a Patriotism with no bounds but two oceans; 
Peace, perpetual over one quarter of the globe; a Civiliza- 
tion, harmonious in its sympathies and interests, unexampled 
in its development, enduring as the world itself. 

Should the latter be the case, this continent would witness 
the re-enactment of the scenes which have made Europe reel 
to and fro under the shock of contending empires. We should 
have European civilization over again — with its enormous 
inequalities of condition ; its warring interests; its hostile 
tariffs; its jealousies, intrigues, devouring ambition; its military 
establishments, all-grasping tyrants, poverty-stricken, humbled, 
and crushed People. 

We say then, if this continent can be settled gradually, 
peacefully, honorably by the Anglo-American People; if it can 
be brought under one government; if the Federal Union, like 
the Bow of Promise, can span this immense aggregate of sea 
and river, wilderness and prairie, valley and mountain, in one 
embrace; who will not rejoice? Is such a prospect vision- 
ary? It is not — the dream may yet have a reality — but 
only on these conditions : 



t 38 J 

1st. That the General Government abstain from all class- 
legislation, from all interference with the domestic concerns 
of the States, from all intermeddling with a view to build up 
particular interests; and devote itself simply to its legitimate 
objects — the regulation of the relations of the country with 
other nations, and the execution of such necessary measures for 
the general welfare as Individual or State Enterprise is inade- 
quate to carry out. 

2ndly. The extinction of Slavery. — This Union, limited as 
it is, is placed in continual peril by this system. Already 
has it alienated the feelings of multitudes, North and South; 
engendered contrarious Interests which cannot be identified, 
dangerous Discords which cannot be healed, so long as it 
shall exist. The attempt to perpetuate a Union, with Slavery 
extended indefinitely over the Californias and the upper pro- 
vinces of Mexico, would be an absurdity. The men who are 
most active in these schemes of slavery extension, do not 
intend that the Union shall endure. 

The third condition is, that this continent be acquired gra- 
dually, peacefully, honorably, by the natural process of colo- 
nization, and assimilation Once embarked on a career of 
conquest, the Union would be crushed under an-overgrown 
Military and Executive Power; and there would result a demor- 
alization of the People subversive necessarily of Free Institutions. 

Violence for a season may succeed, but of one thing we may 
be assured — should Providence educe Good from Evil, the 
aggressive nation need not expect to share in it. It may add 
to its Territory, it may augment its Power, it may accumulate 
Wealth, but the time will come when ail these shall hang like 
mill stones about its neck dragging it down to Perdition. The 
extended Territory of Rome became its weakness — its vast 
Power destroyed its Liberties — its enormous Wealth debauched 
its manners, and annihilated its Moral Life. In achieving 
what it aimed at, it accomplished its own r ruin. 

The lessons of Philosophy should be listened to — and, one 
of its lessons is, that retribution sooner or later overtakes the 
wrong-doer, and that, however it may be with the Individual, 
it is in this world that Nations receive the punishment of 



[ 24 I 

their sins. Anglo-Saxon civilization may be established by 
force over this continent — but that result may be achieved 
at the' expense of the American Union. The Assyrian, the 
Babylonian, the Persian, each in his turn, was used as a rod 
and an instrument in the hands of the Almighty — but each 
in his turn was broken in pieces. 

Ambitious, violent, unjust, working against the Divine (Gov- 
ernment, the American People may be used in the advance- 
ment of great movements, though in the end their doom will 
be destruction ; but, doing Justice, loving Mercy, and thus 
walking in harmony with the Divine Government, they may 
at once accomplish the most glorious ends, and be themselves 
crowned with glory ! 



Note. — [Since the foregoing Lecture was prepared, I have seen an 
elaborate article in a Foreign Review, furnishing rather later statistics 
in relation to Railroads; from which it would seem that the aggregate 
number of miles of railway in continental Europe is somewhat greater 
than I have reckoned it, in the text.] 

The Author. 



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